A large variety of business form products utilize components provided with pressure-sensitive adhesive. In the usual case, variable information is inscribed on the form and then the pressure-sensitive adhesive-bearing component is removed and applied to some other substrate. For example, many business forms used as packing slips or the like are printed upon by being passed through a computer printer. Heretofore, part of the form may have included a component with a pressure-sensitive adhesive backing on a release liner. This component receives, in the usual case, addressee information as the variable information.
After the printing operation is completed, the component having a pressure-sensitive adhesive backing may be stripped from the remainder of the form and placed on a shipping container or the like as a means of directing the container to the proper recipient. The packing slip, itself, may be disposed within the container or the like.
Often, several copies of the information printed on a business form are required. To save printing costs and time, printing is performed on the uppermost ply of business form while the intended copies are subjacent plies. A chemical coating is applied or other image transfer material located between the plies. When pressure is applied to the top ply, the coating creates images on the lower plies to make copies.
Problems arise when the lower plies do not require all the information printed on the upper plies. Furthermore, it is often desired that the lower plies be stripped from the corresponding top ply or plies so that, later, they can be placed on a shipping container, serve as an accounting report, or an inventory record, or the like. The present invention is directed to overcoming one or more of the above problems.